Asatru Folk Assembly - April 2020 Facebook Live Discussion

00:00:00.000 Hey folks, just kind of giving it a second here for people to get a chance to come in

00:00:23.280 and join us. There we go. Hey guys, hope y'all are doing well. As always, it's great to get

00:00:36.320 to chat with you guys this evening. Hey Daniel. A lot of big things going on. First and most

00:00:47.960 obviously these are strange times that we're living in. I know we got a lot of folks locked

00:00:56.360 down in their houses, sticking around close. Got disease going on around the world and a whole lot

00:01:06.120 of folks home from work and I hope everybody's holding up well. But yeah, it's a good time to

00:01:12.120 to get to talk to each other, to utilize the technology that we have to come together.

00:01:18.500 So glad to get to do that with you guys tonight.

00:01:21.160 Hey, Adam.

00:01:21.680 Welcome.

00:01:23.040 Joined today by Adam Hudak, our newest folk builder for the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:01:30.760 Folk building out of Pennsylvania, part of the Lansdale True Folk.

00:01:34.820 Thank you, Adam, for stepping up.

00:01:36.240 We appreciate you volunteering.

00:01:37.420 Those of you guys who don't know, Adam's a great guy, and I'm pretty excited to see what he does for us.

00:01:51.420 Howdy, David.

00:01:56.420 Well, first and foremost tonight, I'm pretty excited today.

00:02:05.420 um been working on something for a really long time and uh been wanting to wanting to have

00:02:13.500 the ability to announce this to you guys for a really long time as of today the 1st of april

00:02:18.940 2020 astro folk assembly has established thorshoff in north carolina the second half of the astro

00:02:26.860 folk assembly um kind of a theme through all of these live chats is how's the second half coming

00:02:34.460 where are we at with second Hoff? I've tried really hard to tell you guys, you know, best I

00:02:39.100 could through the process. There was stuff that I had to keep, uh, keep under wraps a little bit

00:02:45.020 to ensure that everything went through and everything worked out well. Um, but yeah,

00:02:50.900 I'm so glad today that I can tell you guys, we've got our second Hoff, a Hoff devoted to

00:02:56.740 Asa Thor. It's in North Carolina and there's some work to do to kind of remodel it a little bit,

00:03:03.780 make it ours. And a little bit later this year, I'm going to talk to Goethe Spahn-Harrell and

00:03:11.940 Rob Stamm, our folk builder over there, and we're going to plan something up and we'll have a

00:03:16.780 have a grand opening and a dedication ceremony for that Hoff here coming up in the next few months.

00:03:22.220 So yeah, we're very excited about that. I've been promising you guys now for

00:03:28.680 about 13, 14 months now that one of these days we're going to get that second half and then I

00:03:35.520 was working on it. And it's nice to be able to come to you guys tonight and say that we've got

00:03:39.400 it. So hail Thor. Also, since last time I joined you guys,

00:03:57.880 I was able to go down and experience AFA Zostara in the South.

00:04:03.040 That was in South Carolina this year.

00:04:05.880 What a fantastic event.

00:04:08.360 Everybody who was there was thrilled, thought it was amazing.

00:04:13.140 Folks did such a good job putting that on.

00:04:15.920 It was fantastic people.

00:04:17.520 It was an amazing time.

00:04:20.120 And some of you guys may not know, but our GoThart coordinator, Blaine Qualls,

00:04:26.480 He ran that event all the way from North Dakota.

00:04:29.780 He set it up with the help of our law speaker, Alan Turnage.

00:04:34.580 Blaine and Alan figured out that spot, got that all signed up, arranged all the meals,

00:04:39.680 arranged all the activities, had everything work like clockwork.

00:04:43.460 Blaine got, waiting for the final numbers, but one of the best attended OSTARAs we've

00:04:51.060 had in a very long time.

00:04:52.400 well north of 60 i believe um blaine got that all squared away all the way from north dakota

00:05:00.060 and then him some minnesotans and some other north dakotans went all the way across the

00:05:07.400 country to celebrate ostar in the south these years it was really special time

00:05:11.200 uh those of you who are there know and those of you who weren't hopefully we'll see you guys

00:05:15.680 So next year, next year, our OSR in the South can be a Thorshoff.

00:05:36.000 Well, that was my news for you guys.

00:05:41.640 What do you folks want to talk about?

00:05:43.860 Does anybody have anything they want to?

00:05:45.680 Want to ask or any questions or what do we got going on with you guys?

00:06:07.800 Anybody got questions for me tonight?

00:06:09.600 All right. Well, until we do, I got some more stuff. I'll rattle off at you guys.

00:06:24.360 I know it's kind of anticlimactic to be sitting around in the house lately,

00:06:29.820 but looks like one of the big things we can do this summer when we're back getting together

00:06:36.400 with everyone is have you guys come out for uh midsummer at odin's off it's our big midsummer

00:06:43.200 celebration it's our big 25th anniversary celebration this one's going to be spectacular

00:06:49.600 and uh it's a good chance for everybody who's been kind of housebound here to

00:06:54.640 get excited and get out come june so i hope everybody can come out to california for that

00:06:59.120 we'd love to have you guys um always love to have people out at odin's off

00:07:06.400 And that's more folks joining us right now.

00:07:15.880 I sincerely hope y'all are doing good.

00:07:21.540 It's coronavirus thing has got, it's difficult for a lot of people.

00:07:25.820 We have the potential for a lot of people to go through sickness and have tragedy in the family.

00:07:32.160 And that's terrible.

00:07:33.500 We also deal with a lot of people that are out of work.

00:07:36.400 may have lost jobs, that may have had a really inconvenient hiccup in their

00:07:41.080 careers. I want everyone who can hear me now and in the replays of this, any

00:07:47.400 member of our AFA family that are hurt by this, that find themselves on

00:07:50.860 particularly hard times, that have had a tragedy, if you need help please reach

00:07:56.500 out to full services. I've got a lot of very generous people that have donated

00:08:01.900 so that we're in a position to be able to help folks. Can't fix it, can't fix

00:08:06.220 everything, but we can certainly help. So if anybody needs it, please do reach out to Folk

00:08:11.660 Services, reach out to your Folk Builder, and they can contact us. We're here to help each other out

00:08:17.040 through this best we can. I know you guys got some questions tonight. Who's got something they

00:08:29.500 want to ask or something they want to talk about all right well when you guys

00:08:54.340 do please pop it up in the little chat menu over there in the meantime

00:08:59.240 time, some news from Ostara in the South. A little bit over two weeks ago now, Spahn Harrell took his

00:09:09.920 oath as a folk builder for the Astro Folk Assembly, along with Melissa Mills. Spahn's folk building out

00:09:16.000 of Virginia for the Upper South, and Melissa is folk building out of Missouri for the Central

00:09:23.620 corridor region. So that was really nice to be able to be there for their own thing. It's always

00:09:29.300 a very important thing. Our fault builders are how we how we grow. It's how we stay in touch

00:09:36.900 with our membership. It's how we it's how we can function. So congratulations to Spawn and

00:09:42.980 congratulations to Melissa. Other news from Ostara at the South. Spawn Harold took his oath

00:09:51.140 as a Gothi for the Ashtore Folk Assembly. I did this before our gods, before our folk. 0.55

00:09:58.660 It was my privilege and my honor to be Spahn's mentor during his Gothar training, and we are

00:10:05.220 extremely honored to have Spahn Harrell as a Gothi with the Ashtore Folk Assembly. He's a fantastic

00:10:11.940 man, a very spiritual man, and for all who know him, his connection to the Aesir is self-evident,

00:10:19.060 So we're very fortunate to have him with us.

00:10:23.620 Hail Spawn, indeed.

00:10:39.880 So help me out, guys.

00:10:41.280 Somebody ask something.

00:10:44.700 And I know we got folks out there that have things on their mind they want to talk about.

00:10:52.620 One huge thing for anybody who's on here, if you are in the Carolinas or if you are in an area close enough that you're able to,

00:11:01.140 we're going to need a lot of help at Thorsoff with that getting started up,

00:11:06.900 with remodeling being done, with all the things it's going to take to make that very special place

00:11:15.140 our own, make it a Hoff fitting for Thor, make it a special place for the Astro Folk Assembly.

00:11:22.020 It's going to take a lot of volunteers and a lot of help on the ground there.

00:11:26.660 I know that Svon and Rob are going to be taking a lead on that all the way from Virginia, so any

00:11:32.020 help they can get there locally would be much appreciated. I know we've had a huge surge of

00:11:37.540 members in North Carolina recently. We've got a lot of great folks there, so if you can, if you're

00:11:44.100 able, please do reach out and step up because we can really use those volunteers. One thing we've

00:11:49.780 learned at Odin's Hoff is it's a real good opportunity. We've got a lot of people that

00:11:53.540 want to volunteer, but sometimes they don't have the skill set to do any of the tech things or the

00:11:58.260 digital kind of things that we meet volunteers for very often. But when there's a Hoff there,

00:12:03.700 we've got a lot more brick and mortar things that need to get done. We've got landscaping

00:12:08.660 things and plumbing things and carpentry things and folks who work with electronics and security

00:12:17.300 stuff and people who can build and artists. We've got room for all of that to volunteer there. So

00:12:24.740 So if you have those skills and if you want to help out, I know that Spawn and Rob are really going to need you guys' help.

00:12:33.580 Speaking of, Spawn just joined us. Hey, Spawn, welcome.

00:12:48.540 So one thing when it comes to getting Hoffs and making that kind of stuff happen,

00:12:54.060 so much of it is behind the scenes and stuff we can't always talk about and doesn't always get

00:13:00.060 broadcast. But this Hoff was the lion's share of the credit really does go to Spahn. Spahn stepped

00:13:10.520 up. He got us a lender. He put himself out there. He is the one that made this happen in his area

00:13:18.640 and stepped up to to get something in his area without spawn we absolutely

00:13:24.580 would be establishing a second half but it sure wouldn't be in North Carolina

00:13:27.940 spawn is the reason this Hoff is where it's at and his dedication really is

00:13:33.640 something that we we need to make sure we celebrate and are thankful for because

00:13:37.180 he came through huge for us and he came through huge for the gods

00:13:48.640 Well, I suppose now is a good enough time as any to say this also, if you're looking

00:14:04.300 for ways to help out with 2nd Hoff, we are raising funds and we're going to be continuing

00:14:10.400 to raise funds to help pay the bills and to help pay that Hoff off.

00:14:17.240 ours when we made that first initial purchase but we do have we do have a

00:14:21.980 loan out on it so we're gonna need help paying that off we're gonna start

00:14:26.060 fundraising for it just like we did for Odin's Hoff until it's all the way paid

00:14:29.660 off the note on it it's not massive and it's something that we put our heads

00:14:38.460 together I'm sure we can get paid off really quickly and as soon as we're done

00:14:42.980 having that paid off we're gonna start on Hoff number three that's that's

00:14:46.580 always been the deal. I've told you guys the quickest way to get a Hoff in your

00:14:51.140 area, a Hoff near you, is to help us pay off the current Hoff and then we move on 0.99

00:14:56.720 to the next one and we'll keep going until there's eventually one right down 0.84

00:14:59.520 the road from you. And I'm very much committed to making that happen. But that

00:15:04.220 is going to mean folks open it up and doing what they can and giving when

00:15:08.900 they're able. And yeah, we'd appreciate any help you can do with that at www.runestone.org.

00:15:14.820 we've got a donate link that's got a special link just to donate towards

00:15:19.620 paying off this off so yeah anything you guys can do be much appreciated got a

00:15:28.320 few more joined us over the last little bit here if they haven't heard we've

00:15:34.920 got Thor's Hoff we officially have our second Hoff and it's in North Carolina

00:15:39.780 So it's a very exciting day for the Astrid Folk Assembly, and I'm very happy to be able to share that with you guys this evening.

00:15:54.300 So I know some of you guys have to have some questions.

00:15:57.280 One of the best things about these times is it's a question and answer period.

00:16:00.520 So if you guys have anything you want to make sure you say or make sure we talk about or any questions about what we got going on, about where we're going.

00:16:09.780 what we're doing, anything like that, this is the time to say something.

00:16:14.760 So we would welcome any kind of questions or input you guys might have.

00:16:24.560 Another note in AFA news this last month.

00:16:28.720 So Sean had been running our store for a really long time, and he worked really hard for us.

00:16:35.020 He did a lot for us, but life just got to be a little bit more than he had room to run that store in.

00:16:41.420 So as of this month, Sean has stepped back from running the AFA store.

00:16:47.180 He's still going to be working on designs for clothing and stuff for us.

00:16:50.580 He's going to be helping out that way, which is huge.

00:16:53.560 Still a great part of our family out west.

00:16:56.960 But I'm going to be running the AFA store now myself, so please bear with me.

00:17:02.980 it's gonna be a little bit of a learning curve

00:17:04.760 to make sure we get everything squared away,

00:17:06.640 to make sure we figure out that system perfectly,

00:17:10.320 but I'm pretty excited about it.

00:17:12.260 There's a lot of stuff we'd like to do with it.

00:17:13.980 We'd like to get some more items

00:17:15.340 that you guys might want in there.

00:17:18.220 And yeah, so I think there's a lot we can do that way,

00:17:21.940 but do know that AFA store is under new management.

00:17:25.340 So yeah, I appreciate you guys' patience.

00:17:28.060 And if you wanna stop by there and make a purchase,

00:17:30.440 I'll get that out to them until you put it in the mail the next day so be sure

00:17:36.980 to stop by

00:17:41.080 Chad see you got some question marks there but I'm not sure what what they're

00:17:45.380 in reference to

00:18:00.440 all right we're 18 minutes in and so far nobody's got any questions trying to

00:18:22.440 think of what else has gone on in the last last month since I've spoke to you

00:18:26.240 guys and kind of what else special to talk about. We've got Nate's joined us tonight and Nate made

00:18:34.100 the wonderful 25th anniversary AFA calendars we have being sold in the shop. I noticed that

00:18:41.840 those are selling like hotcakes. I appreciate you guys purchasing those. Got a lot of pictures

00:18:47.780 that celebrate kind of where we come from, where we've been. But yeah, Nate, we really appreciate

00:18:53.820 the effort you put into that apparently Mandy says there are questions that are

00:19:00.900 just not showing up on the on the live chat and that's unfortunate let me try

00:19:05.820 to see on my phone here if I can access those because I will see this is not a

00:19:13.100 not a perfect process by any means you see what I got going on

00:19:20.120 hmm also let me mute myself here cool Wow so there's tons of questions I

00:19:34.760 apologize I'm looking on my phone right now to get to those questions I promise

00:19:39.260 I was not ignoring y'all hmm there is a fund to help people who are out of work

00:19:47.540 right now Chad it's it's not really a special fund it's the AFA folk services

00:19:54.980 this is just a particularly relevant time for folk services but the AFA folk

00:20:01.580 services fund if you guys are able and you can at www.roomstone.org we have a

00:20:08.520 donate link as long with the Hoff donate link that I mentioned earlier there's

00:20:12.740 one for folks services and that money goes to our folk that may find

00:20:17.840 themselves in hard times in general but specifically during this lockdown

00:20:23.000 situation and the virus situation we do have that set up to try to help our

00:20:27.260 folks as much we can and looking at the the storage in there of what people have

00:20:32.300 donated we've got a lot of folks that have been very generous so yeah that's

00:20:37.060 somewhere you can go for that.

00:20:48.700 Philip Johnson asked what we could use from the lore or literature to help kids

00:20:53.280 understand the quarantine situation better.

00:20:57.940 It's a really good question and it deserves a little bit of thought like to

00:21:02.800 think on it and uh try to come back to it a little bit later with something better um

00:21:13.600 the best example that i can think of off hand are uh

00:21:20.960 life and love of life the two people that took shelter during ragnarok

00:21:25.760 inside the trunk of the world tree i think that that story

00:21:29.440 is a promise that things get better. It's a promise that though those two people life and

00:21:36.380 literally the love of life, they survived the cataclysm. They survived that chaos inside the

00:21:42.320 tree. When it was all over and done, when things were made anew and the cycle began again, they

00:21:47.800 came out and they came out happy and celebrate. And I think that's the most telling example from

00:21:54.280 the lore that I would use. I'm excited to see there was a bunch of comments. You guys weren't

00:22:03.740 leaving me hanging. It was a technical problem. So thank you guys for that.

00:22:14.640 Andrew asked what my daily practices look like. Depends on the day. One thing I like to do is wake

00:22:23.420 up in the morning and, uh, oftentimes when I'm taking a shower, I like to sing the, uh,

00:22:30.240 the Cedrifamol prayer. And, uh, that's the one where hail day, hail sons of day, hail

00:22:39.560 night and your daughters. Look on us now with loving eyes waiting, grant us victory.

00:22:49.340 hail ye gods ye goddesses hail hail the earth all giving grant to us wisdom give us goodly speech

00:23:01.980 and hands to heal all of our lives i used to just kind of say it but singing it is something our

00:23:10.160 swedes do and i thought that was a really cool thing so i tried to do that um what's always been

00:23:17.260 really important to me though is coming before the ancestors and do an altar

00:23:22.780 work at night when I have kind of that moment of calm usually I'm the one who's

00:23:28.180 up the latest in our house I've got a set up one day I'll take a picture but

00:23:33.780 I've got my altar kind of in the middle of stair at the base of the stairwell

00:23:37.420 and up the stairs I've always wanted this I have a picture wall of my

00:23:40.900 ancestors that kind of wraps around up the stairwell so I'll come there and

00:23:45.220 come before the guys the ancestors and all I'll ask for wisdom and guidance

00:23:50.940 help with certain things and I'll we affirm commitments I've made to be a

00:23:56.920 better man to do more to be more and you know more specific things that I've

00:24:02.520 stepped up to say that I'll do and that I'll improve and ask the gods and

00:24:07.860 specifically my ancestors to watch over my family do that and I'll light a

00:24:13.220 a little bit of incense sometimes I'll pour out a little libation and like

00:24:18.680 candles that's really my daily practice but different occasions call for

00:24:24.860 different things

00:24:27.340 all right guys I apologize about all that but I will get better at at figuring out these comments

00:24:46.860 I do appreciate you guys patience and I appreciate you guys asking stuff I'm sorry I wasn't able to

00:24:53.380 see them. We'll get this situation figured out a little bit better.

00:25:08.840 David, as far as where you can get information on our relationship with our gods.

00:25:16.180 It's not like the easiest one-stop shop of where you can get some of that. Certainly,

00:25:21.260 If you read any of the AFA's literature, any of the old rune stones, if you read Living Alcetru, if you read Steve's book, Alcetru, a native European spirituality, they all talk about how we approach our gods.

00:25:35.660 I think our gods are certainly friendly to us, but I wouldn't say we're not slave to our gods.

00:25:43.880 We're their friends. While we're not slaves to our gods, certainly they're not.

00:25:48.520 they're not our buddies either they're gods they certainly stand far above us and we hope to

00:25:55.000 be worthy of them and we hope to be more like them and move towards them and while they they

00:26:00.440 are akin and they care for us there's certainly a different difference of degree and a difference

00:26:06.920 hierarchy that's you know certainly beyond any mortal comprehension um so i think it's important

00:26:13.400 that uh you mentioned christians are used to a god that does everything for them um our gods want to

00:26:20.740 be proud of us they want us to be heroes and do great things so that uh so that we can be worthy

00:26:27.120 of them and so that they can take pride in the things that we do and respect us as men and as

00:26:32.060 people and i think that's a more important distinction but and i and i'm not putting

00:26:38.160 anything on what you said as far as the gods being friends but i would i would caution people

00:26:44.320 not to look at the gods in such a mundane friendship way because they certainly are

00:26:48.700 high above man and we need to approach them with due reverence and respect in that way

00:27:08.160 So Joe, as far as a hand fasting, that would be amazing to have at Thorshoff, would love

00:27:15.260 to see that there.

00:27:16.760 What you need to do is contact Spahn, Spahn if you're on this, please know that he's looking

00:27:21.720 out and wants to know some information about that, Spahn is going to be the guy who helps

00:27:26.620 setting up meetings and coordinating events at Thorshoff, so he's definitely the man you

00:27:31.620 want to talk to and he wouldn't be a bad choice to be the man to marry, Spahn is a fantastic

00:27:36.440 So social distancing is hard Josh. Some good ways to stay in touch with our folk

00:27:48.860 and our kindreds is to really make use of Facebook now. One of the things that

00:27:53.600 the AFA is amazing at is we're not a Facebook group. We're real people that do

00:27:58.860 real things. We have two physical Hoffs now. We get together every weekend for

00:28:03.600 real events in the real world, then all of a sudden we can't.

00:28:07.500 That's hard, it's hard for all of us, it's hard for me.

00:28:10.440 But now is the time to connect with all those Facebook

00:28:13.500 friends that you have and talk to them.

00:28:16.000 Do things like this.

00:28:17.640 Facebook chats are amazing this way.

00:28:19.500 You can do Facebook video calls with,

00:28:23.460 I'm not sure how many people, but that's what I always do

00:28:25.720 when I talk to our members in Spain, or in Italy,

00:28:28.660 and when I talk to our members in Sweden,

00:28:30.820 And those work out really well.

00:28:34.380 So I really encourage folks to do that.

00:28:36.580 If you're part of a kindred,

00:28:38.480 get together with your kindred online as much as you can.

00:28:40.920 Talk back and forth.

00:28:42.840 Now's a good time to do book studies online with them.

00:28:46.640 And yeah, and look forward to the day

00:28:48.480 that we can get together again physically.

00:28:50.000 But in the meantime, these kind of things,

00:28:52.580 and it helps, I find, when there's a picture,

00:28:55.640 when there's a video, when there's a face.

00:28:57.720 And I think Facebook does a really good job of that.

00:29:00.820 Facebook's not everything, but I think in this time, in this crisis, it's a really good

00:29:06.060 tool for us to stay connected.

00:29:16.140 So I'm having to kind of go back and forth here on my phone to get the different comments.

00:29:21.820 Do bear with me if I miss anything.

00:29:23.520 Like always, I'm going to go back over this when I'm done and try to catch anything that

00:29:27.440 I missed and make sure stuff gets answered. It's real buggy. Facebook had a new, started

00:29:36.300 last month, but they had kind of a new thing they do with live videos as far as their creator

00:29:41.280 studios, so that could be part of it. But I'm going to have Cliff help me with it and

00:29:45.800 some of our tech people, and maybe we can get the situation figured out a little bit

00:29:48.740 better. Oh, good. Well, hello to you too. Say hello to the Cascadia All Things people

00:29:57.320 for me too. We love our candidates in the AFA and those are some fine people.

00:30:06.760 No spawn. Thank you. This victory at Thor's off. This is due to your hard

00:30:14.460 work. It's due to you and your family's willingness to put yourself forward in

00:30:19.700 the front line for the folk and now we all appreciate it. We all owe you a debt

00:30:25.360 of gratitude. Lloyd, absolutely. This is not just something pretend. Doucetru isn't a hobby. It's

00:30:42.840 an actual faith, an actual religion. We're all wasting our time if our beliefs and our values

00:30:49.320 don't infuse all of our life. What was always very important to any of our

00:30:55.180 ancestors practicing a folkish and ethnic faith was the idea of wholesomeness,

00:31:03.820 of wholeness, and that's a completion. That's all aspects of your life. Religion

00:31:08.820 was never meant to be, you know, just something you did on Sundays or just

00:31:12.540 ritualistic practice like you mentioned. Our faith should inform all of our

00:31:17.280 actions it should inform our politics it should inform how we what kind of what

00:31:23.640 work we do how we are as bosses how we are as employees it should inform the

00:31:28.040 kind of fathers the kind of sons the kind of husbands we are and form the

00:31:32.220 kind of friends we are it should inform every part of our lives because it's not

00:31:36.600 something we do it's who we are so I think it's fundamental that also true

00:31:40.980 ends up affecting all those aspects of your life. Jessica, me too. I am so excited to visit the

00:31:50.420 Hoth also. We're looking to get a nice, pretty substantial dedication and kind of grand opening

00:32:00.120 for Thor's Hoth lined up. As soon as we know what we're doing with this, all the quarantine deal,

00:32:04.580 and we can figure out a date on that, we're going to get that set up. I'm looking forward to going

00:32:09.480 out there and being at that hock with my folk as well so I'm glad a lot of you are speaking up on

00:32:37.240 what you guys are doing as far as getting together with folks looks like

00:32:42.340 there's a lot of conference calls going on in people's regions which is great

00:32:46.420 Melissa mentioned that our ladies are getting together via zoom which seems

00:32:50.160 to work good for them I think that's fantastic I'm glad to see that all right

00:33:01.660 I think I got most of folks' questions.

00:33:06.440 If you ask something that I didn't get to,

00:33:08.620 if you could try it again,

00:33:10.140 I think I've got a little bit better handle

00:33:11.660 on how to find that now.

00:33:15.240 Yeah.

00:33:19.400 It's good to see so many of you on here.

00:33:23.460 I don't know, I guess one good thing

00:33:24.700 about our current situation is we have the opportunity

00:33:27.520 for more folks to get on and talk with each other like this.

00:33:31.660 As I've said a lot, this is one of my favorite things to do every month.

00:33:35.220 I'm glad for that.

00:33:44.080 What else we got?

00:33:45.040 Does anybody else have anything they want to ask or want to get my take on or want to make sure we talk about?

00:33:59.040 Yeah, I'm certainly here for it if you guys do.

00:34:01.660 I'm looking I'm trying to check the check the phone just in case there's

00:34:07.020 questions and things that I might be missing

00:34:17.820 the advice when introducing a teenage daughter to house a troop now's the time

00:34:22.820 to do it I've said this before but when a lot of us started practicing house a

00:34:28.980 true. It was a lot of guys. It's a lot of single guys and the guys with families that showed up,

00:34:35.680 they would often show up by themselves without their families. And I've been through a lot of

00:34:41.600 changes, a lot of growth, and it's been one of the most beautiful things to see so many families

00:34:46.760 come around. Every event, we try to post pictures of how many ladies we have, but far from just

00:34:53.460 being about the guys now, it's almost 50%, sometimes more than 50% women and children 0.76

00:34:59.300 are in our events now. And it's cool because we have kids of all ages. We have teenagers

00:35:03.240 and they get together with other teenagers and get along well. We've got the older kids

00:35:07.600 to get together and kind of take care of the younger kids. That's been a really nice thing

00:35:13.140 to see. So now is a really good time to do that. I think one of the best things you can

00:35:18.360 do to get a teenage daughter involved is bring her to events that have other

00:35:23.160 teenage girls at them and I think things just naturally develop from there just

00:35:30.980 being around our community and our folk will help because it's a fun thing it's

00:35:38.520 a fun experience and I think that bringing your daughter out to events to

00:35:42.660 meet other people will do a lot and it'll plant a seed where even at that

00:35:46.980 time if they're not super excited about it I think that they will get used to

00:35:53.700 what to expect it'll take away any any strangeness that it might have and also

00:35:58.860 especially if there's other kids if there's other other girls her age that

00:36:04.140 would be the best thing to bring her in and not just that but if you're

00:36:08.340 successful having your daughter around will be a great thing to bring other

00:36:12.220 young girls in to feel comfortable and that's really the goal. How can this help

00:36:27.700 relations between religions in my opinion? I'm not sure what this is. If we're

00:36:32.980 talking about the current situation that we're in, I don't know but I have seen

00:36:38.800 that it does I think that in any shared time of crisis where we all have to deal

00:36:43.080 with common enemy be that a physical enemy or a situation that we all endure

00:36:47.800 together I think it points out commonality whereas very often we focus

00:36:53.760 on differences I think it's the opportunity for us and also true and in

00:37:00.100 the Austria folk assembly to show our nobility in helping others in finding

00:37:05.560 opportunities for charity and I think it's a way for other other faiths to

00:37:10.540 know that we're serious and to to judge our value and our worth in Austria we

00:37:16.720 are we are our deeds and our deeds are what prove that worth so this is the

00:37:21.640 opportunity to shine

00:37:28.260 where the beard went that was my winter beard and I shaved it off on the

00:37:32.800 solstice stick around for or yeah no sorry sorry on the equinox stick around

00:37:38.560 for the fall equinox and I think I may start growing it again see what it does

00:37:42.560 but yeah that was that was my winter beard and it's spring and so I facing

00:37:49.660 facing the energetic spring clean shaven and ready to go um it depends mark we

00:38:02.720 try to develop some of that as we go on as far as consecration rites. I'm going to have to check

00:38:08.200 out the lay of the land once I get there. I have a number of ideas on what to do to sanctify it.

00:38:13.920 We certainly do a land-taking rite. Usually that's circumlocuting the area with some kind

00:38:21.600 of fire. I don't know if it's a good spot to have a torch or to have a lantern. But with chanting

00:38:28.460 and with announcing to the spirits of the land that we're there,

00:38:31.620 that it's our spot now,

00:38:35.060 showing our intentions to take care of the area,

00:38:38.520 to take care of something that's been holy,

00:38:41.300 to make it holy for our purpose.

00:38:45.680 I think with a common sense kind of invocations of the gods,

00:38:51.180 certainly when we're there to do the consecration,

00:38:54.000 we'll do a bloat to Thor,

00:38:56.040 ask his blessings upon the place, invite him to take up take up residence, to be

00:39:01.740 there, to inhabit that spot, to fill it with his might, with his hymenia. We'll

00:39:07.800 certainly do that. One of the other really interesting things about this new

00:39:11.220 Hoth is we became the caretakers of two very, or one very old grave that has two

00:39:18.960 persons entered in it. It's an old broken tombstone where these people are interred. So one of the

00:39:27.640 things we're going to try to do is recover those names and recover what we can learn about those

00:39:32.920 people and make a point of treating their remains and their tombs as something sacred and part of

00:39:40.940 that spot. And I think that'll help connect us with the spirits and the energies that occupy

00:39:46.680 that place, and I think that's an opportunity for us to show a certain amount of reverence

00:39:51.400 and respect.

00:39:52.400 And I think that'll go well with the area, with the energy there, and with the spirits

00:39:57.360 of that area, showing that we are the noble people that we claim to be.

00:40:02.760 That's the ideas I have right now for the consecration ritual, but Svon and I will work

00:40:06.780 on that by the time we get there and have something a little bit more flashy planned.

00:40:12.240 Cemetery at Odenshof. Met a great guy that is in the cemetery business, knows what he's

00:40:24.660 doing as far as making it pretty. We've got the grid area from the county as far as being

00:40:30.380 able to grid it out to have the right proportions and do it in an orderly way. We're set and

00:40:35.720 ready. We've got the tools. We are just waiting on the remains of someone who their kin would

00:40:43.960 like to have buried there or to have their ashes interred there. Like I said, we have one family

00:40:50.160 that wants to do that with the ashes of their daughter, but we're not going to be pushy about

00:40:54.760 that. We've offered it. They know that it's there and they're planning on doing it. That time is

00:40:59.880 up to them, but as soon as they're ready, we'll get out there. We'll start digging and we'll make

00:41:05.000 a beautiful spot for their daughter's ashes. But like I said, that's all set up. That's

00:41:10.820 ready to go whenever the family is. What's my take on the COVID-19 situation? Well, that's

00:41:19.660 controversial. I know everybody's all over the map on it. We've got some of our folk

00:41:29.540 that genuinely believe that this is a truly epic plague upon our people

00:41:36.820 that is going to kill millions and millions and is a horrible, horrible thing

00:41:42.100 and are very scared about that.

00:41:45.480 Maybe they're right. I don't know.

00:41:48.500 Got others of us that think it's all made up

00:41:51.580 and it's a political ploy by the left or whoever else

00:41:55.980 to disrupt the economy and cause problems and to, you know, kind of covertly implement

00:42:05.580 martial law and test out stuff on a populace, you know, that's scared.

00:42:12.960 I don't know.

00:42:13.840 Maybe there's some of that too.

00:42:15.380 Maybe both sides are right.

00:42:17.800 What I know for sure is the virus is bad and it kills people.

00:42:25.980 And when good people die, that's sad, and it's sad for all of us, and I don't want good people to die.

00:42:33.060 And when people are all of a sudden out of work and locked down in their house and can't gather and can't move around freely and can't gather for worship services, that's bad, too.

00:42:48.000 And that's a sad situation, and it's really unfortunate that's where we're at.

00:42:52.360 I think either way, we need to be here to support each other, to take care of our AFA

00:43:02.540 family, to take care of our individual families, and to do the best we can to be a force for

00:43:09.320 good and for order in the world.

00:43:13.860 I don't know where all this is headed.

00:43:15.780 Hopefully it'll get over quickly.

00:43:17.920 by the end of this month, we'll be able to get together again. We're going to have to keep our

00:43:23.500 eyes and our minds open as this develops to evaluate what we hear and not be ruled by fear

00:43:30.360 in either of the cases I mentioned above or anything in between. We need to think clearly

00:43:36.660 and here's something that folks do. And I know that all too often in my own life, I have a

00:43:43.380 tendency to want to do this. I think we all do. When we hear something that we don't like,

00:43:47.920 that we think is too extreme on one end.

00:43:50.640 We want to run to the other end as fast as we can

00:43:53.140 to counterbalance it or out of spite

00:43:55.160 for the other side that we think is BS.

00:44:00.440 It's important not to do that

00:44:02.080 and to stay rational

00:44:03.680 and stay choosing the actions that we take,

00:44:10.620 choosing what we accept and what we don't,

00:44:13.180 as opposed to allowing fear to draw us this way or that way

00:44:17.120 or frustration to draw us this way or that way.

00:44:20.940 I always talk about one of the key components of being Arian

00:44:23.420 is we're the people that choose.

00:44:25.400 Instead of having counterpunching based on the choices of others,

00:44:30.420 we're the people that take the opportunity to step back,

00:44:33.100 to evaluate, and then to choose a course of action.

00:44:37.300 I want us all to do that.

00:44:38.460 The other thing is, as we watch this,

00:44:41.300 everybody's got different information.

00:44:43.660 Some of the information conflicts.

00:44:45.160 I can tell you this, everyone's not right. I can also tell you this, everyone's not wrong.

00:44:51.200 As we do this, it's really easy, the more we're cooped up and the more we don't have access to

00:44:56.220 all the things we do to cope with stress in life, for us to start bickering amongst ourselves or

00:45:01.580 to have a short fuse. It's really important that when we see people that are stampeding out of fear,

00:45:10.180 that we lovingly try to bring them back to some peace and some center.

00:45:15.980 But then when we see people making choices different than the ones that we would make,

00:45:21.040 that we respect the motivations of why they're doing it.

00:45:25.280 We all have to do the best we can for the safety, the health, the well-being of our own families,

00:45:32.060 of ourselves, and we've got to base that on the best information we have.

00:45:37.280 And as people, we're just out here doing our best.

00:45:40.180 So I think it's really important to have a certain amount of grace as a noble people when we deal with each other.

00:45:46.320 Just because somebody is, you know, these crazies over here wearing super protective gear and freaking out and taking this way too serious.

00:45:55.960 Well, they're doing it because they really believe it's a threat and they want to keep their people safe.

00:46:00.900 And if you got these guys over here that don't do any of this and they're going out and they're doing stuff you wouldn't do and they're taking risks you wouldn't take.

00:46:08.140 they're evaluating the information the best they can and they're trying to balance, you know,

00:46:12.940 maybe their work, maybe their own mental health the best they can with the information that they

00:46:17.960 have. And they're taking a step based on the information that they know. But the thing is,

00:46:23.560 is our AFA family, we're all doing our best with the information we have to be the best people we

00:46:28.080 can be. We need to support each other in doing that and come together and not apart in times

00:46:34.460 like this. So that's my take on it right now. How is my baby? My baby's doing fantastic

00:46:44.420 and she is due here very, very soon. We're in kind of the any day now phase. She's not

00:46:50.820 really due until the 17th, but we're expecting her as soon as she gets here. We can't wait

00:46:56.640 to meet her. Mandy is doing fantastic, but, you know, it's towards the end. So she's,

00:47:02.620 you know, there's not really a position for her that's comfortable, but she's holding up good

00:47:08.860 emotionally and mentally. She's holding up fantastic, which is to her credit in a huge way.

00:47:14.140 And we're just so excited to meet our daughter here very soon.

00:47:28.320 Yes, I remember up in Alaska too, and it was all guys for a long time.

00:47:32.620 I know how that is in Alaska being born and raised there but look it's gotten 0.99

00:47:37.420 better and it's getting better all the time as far as getting women around

00:47:51.300 Jared asked about how things are in Texas things are slow in Texas I would

00:47:58.960 love to see more folks there. We have members in Texas. We've got Sheila, Sheila McNallan

00:48:04.400 folk building for us trying to build that region up. We got a lot of good people in

00:48:08.580 Texas. Sometimes in Texas, it's been difficult to get people to travel a great distance from

00:48:14.080 their house to get together. And it may take a few hours to get together with AFA members,

00:48:18.240 but that's how folks are built. But yeah, we would like to see things grow in Texas.

00:48:22.900 We did have a kindred there at one point in time. We did go different ways.

00:48:28.960 And we no longer wish to associate with those people in any way.

00:48:35.960 They turned out to be some pretty bad folks.

00:48:39.960 But we still have some great people in Texas.

00:48:41.960 And Sheila McNallan is our folk builder for Texas, and she'd be really happy to help you get situated with where our members at,

00:48:48.960 how to interact with them, and hopefully we can build something really good there.

00:48:52.960 It's just going to take a little bit to get that momentum back in Texas.

00:48:58.960 The best way to get your wife to want to go to an event, show her pictures, show her pictures 1.00

00:49:07.840 of our past events.

00:49:08.840 I make these little, they're not really videos, but little slide shows of events and show

00:49:14.680 her all the kids and the families and the other women there. 0.50

00:49:19.580 The best thing that I found that brings in women, be they wives, girlfriends, sisters, 1.00

00:49:26.280 own daughters is to show them and take them to a place that has other women doing things. 0.99

00:49:33.500 Not only do we have a lot of women at events, but they're no longer, you know, for a time there, 1.00

00:49:38.520 very often the women were plus one. They were there with their husband or their boyfriend 0.76

00:49:41.740 and kind of milling around, not really into things. All of that's changed. We've got women

00:49:48.420 who are very, very excited about what they're doing. We have three Githias now that are 1.00

00:49:53.020 ministering to our folk, and we've got a lot of really active things. What we take to do with

00:49:59.360 these events very often is we'll have a special time just set aside for the ladies to where they 1.00

00:50:04.980 can do their thing. They can get together and talk just amongst the women about their issues 0.99

00:50:11.060 and their spiritual development, and I think that, you know, everybody's wife is different,

00:50:17.220 but I think for most folks that are having the struggle and their wives around, that's a key

00:50:21.340 to making that happen is getting around and seeing that there's something there's

00:50:24.640 place for them there too so I would encourage you to do that also I see

00:50:29.500 Sheila popping up with a lot of little thumbs up and stuff reach out to Sheila

00:50:34.480 McNallan she's a Githia with us she's been around out so true she's been

00:50:38.500 around the AFA since the very very beginning and she's a wonderful source

00:50:42.400 on ideas to help bring your wife in that goes to the guy who mentioned about is

00:50:46.940 his daughter his teenage daughter as well

00:50:51.340 Long-shaped family plots, that's certainly an idea and something we've thought about.

00:51:11.520 One of the ideas we want families to have at Odin's Hoth Cemetery, we're planning there,

00:51:16.860 want families to have a lot of freedom and what they want to do to honor their

00:51:22.440 their loved one. But one of our basic ideas for someone who doesn't have that

00:51:27.840 in mind or doesn't have any particular plan would be to make the graves in ship

00:51:33.480 shapes facing to the west, facing towards the setting sun as the way our people

00:51:39.300 have always explored and gone forward. So that is a plan at Odinsov Cemetery.

00:51:46.860 This is very very strange how this is working because I'm not getting any of your guys stuff

00:52:01.860 in my screen it's all on my phone so if I'm looking down at my phone I've got a good excuse 0.98

00:52:07.560 Rachel, yeah, as I was saying, we do have a lot of female mentorship. 0.69

00:52:16.640 Githya Anna Funk, Githya Sheila McNallan, and Githya Katie Erickson are all amazing resources.

00:52:25.920 They have really stepped up to help our women, to help them grow spiritually.

00:52:31.460 those who I would look to as women for mentorship, and they will be able to help you if you reach

00:52:38.120 out to them. They'd be very glad to hear from you. Elliot, why did we separate ourselves from

00:52:48.820 the kindred in Texas. So try hard not to unduly bash people, and that's not what I'm trying

00:53:02.340 to do or to focus on negative stuff, but I think it's a valid question. And we're talking

00:53:09.180 about the Black Sun tribe. There was a lot of issues there with behavior of some of the

00:53:24.500 key members of that group that was erratic, that was dangerous, and that alienated a lot

00:53:30.820 of our folk unnecessarily and constantly. The AFA tried to work with the members of

00:53:37.680 leadership of that kindred for a year in one case, three years in a

00:53:45.860 different case to try to get them to behave in a standard that reflect the

00:53:50.460 dignity and the honor of the Astru Folk Assembly and what we expect of our

00:53:53.520 members and it would never take. There seemed to be a drive to always try to

00:54:00.720 one-up people in edginess and in theatrics at the cost of decency and

00:54:09.540 nobility of behavior and in order to be edgy and to to be edgy and extreme and

00:54:21.660 cool they really jeopardized the safety and the well-being of a lot of people

00:54:28.960 with some of their actions and it was headed one direction and when they decided to take steps that

00:54:36.100 were certainly bordering on on criminal and certainly in very very bad taste we had to we

00:54:45.700 had to distance ourselves from them we couldn't be associated with them the risk to our membership

00:54:49.720 and to our families was just too much and not for anything other than than somebody having a

00:54:57.520 I don't know, a seemingly very childish pursuit of being an edgelord. And we're not about being

00:55:09.080 edgelords. We're about being noble people and having dignity about what we do. And that's why

00:55:14.940 chose to part ways with those folks yes folks in Wisconsin we have stuff in the

00:55:27.560 Milwaukee area we do have members throughout Wisconsin I'm not sure when

00:55:31.920 their next event is I see in the bottom of my screen though Zach Cato just

00:55:35.800 popped up Zach Cato is our folk builder for that region and he'd be really happy

00:55:40.080 to help you get squared away with what's going on in excuse me in the Wisconsin

00:55:45.900 area so yeah please do reach out to Zach Zach if you're hearing me please reach

00:55:50.880 out to Sarah Strozik I hope I didn't butcher your last name if I did I

00:55:58.840 apologize but yeah please reach out to her

00:56:03.960 a message from Brandi Callahan one of our folk builders in North Dakota and a 1.00

00:56:09.960 fantastic lady all around. She is running our AFA youth program. That's an amazing thing we've had

00:56:16.280 going on this year, too much success. Brandi is doing a fantastic job with that program.

00:56:22.120 It's for kids 6 to 18. If you have kids, if you're on here and you are a kid,

00:56:27.880 please reach out to Brandi Callahan or youth at runestone.org. And yeah, we'd love to get

00:56:35.400 get you folks involved. It's a really neat program, a lot of cool things going on and

00:56:41.560 Brandy's putting a lot of love in that. So if you are interested, please reach out to

00:56:45.640 to where she can answer any questions or get you dialed in.

00:57:15.640 best ways to contact the women that I mentioned Sheila at runestone org that's

00:57:28.300 her email address she would love to talk to you it's a good question I'll

00:57:37.060 follow up with a link or maybe Katie or Cliff could give you a better link it's

00:57:41.580 going to say see Erickson at runestone org but Cliff and Katie both start with

00:57:47.400 the C and the Erickson's either way it would get to Katie yeah I'm gonna have

00:57:53.940 to look and see actually I can look while we're on this and try to get your

00:57:56.820 her email address the other thing is Anna funk get the Anna funk so a funk

00:58:03.540 at runestone dot org would be how you get a hold of Anna and she would be very

00:58:09.540 eager to help you. So one more step here and I'll get you Katie's. Oh my goodness. That's

00:58:26.680 not working. All right. I'm going to keep trying to find Katie's email address for you. Appreciate

00:58:35.540 you sharing that, Rob. Apparently, other folks are having trouble seeing people's questions,

00:58:44.140 so it's not just me. That makes me feel a little bit better, but what made me feel best was making

00:58:48.240 sure I'm getting all your questions. All right, Katie Erickson, cm.erickson at roomstone.org.

00:59:00.280 Katie is fantastic. I think very highly of her. I think you would do really well to contact

00:59:05.440 her. If you did have any questions, she would be able to help you really well.

00:59:20.320 Zach, the lady's name was Sarah Strozik, S-A-R-A-H, last name S-T-R-O-Z-Y-K.

00:59:41.680 Melissa's talking about a book club where they're reading Steve MacDallan's book,

00:59:47.780 Austro and native European spirituality that would be something really cool for

00:59:51.920 folks to join into if you guys would like. So we're having a lot of little

00:59:58.900 difficulties here tonight on getting some some of these questions answered. I

01:00:03.020 really hope that I got you guys questions. Like I said I will be going

01:00:08.160 in after the fact and trying to make sure that I'm not leaving you guys hanging.

01:00:12.220 Thank you guys so much for joining me this evening. We're all stressed out

01:00:18.260 during this lockdown thing and talking to you guys has been really special for

01:00:23.080 me. Thank you for that. And it is an amazing day to celebrate with you guys

01:00:29.500 because we have Thor's Hoff. So if you guys have any more questions try to

01:00:36.580 throw them out if you can. If not I'm gonna leave you guys for this evening.

01:00:42.040 try to make it to your local conference calls try to reach out to other AFA members in your area

01:00:49.100 if you feel alone and you feel isolated reach out to your local folk builder

01:00:53.760 if you're alone and you feel isolated and you need something reach out to me

01:00:58.900 anytime you want and I would love to talk to you I love my AFA family I'm so proud of you guys

01:01:06.300 And I am so tremendously proud and overjoyed and excited that we have our second half today.

01:01:17.160 So, hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA, hail the one.

Asatru Folk Assembly - April 02, 2020

April 2020 Facebook Live Discussion

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